collecting water
More than 200 families living between Puerto de la Torre and Almogía are still fighting to get running water in their homes. They have been waiting for a solution for years
04.02.09 - 18:33 -
INCONVENIENCE. Ana Infante has been carting water bottles around her whole life. / A. ROCHE
It may be hard to believe but not all residents in the municipality of Malaga have the luxury of being able to turn on a tap in their homes and for drinking water to run out. Even in the 21st century there are still more than 200 households that have been waiting 30 years for the different authorities to reach an agreement and connect them to the water mains.
We are talking about residents in rural areas between Puerto de la Torre and the municipal boundary with Almogía, near the left bank of the River Campanillas. Their homes are grouped in areas with names like Llano Persona, Casablanca, Los López, Los Lagos, Matagatos, Farfulla, La Ventilla, Torrequemada, Los Benítez, Santo Poco, Arroyo de León and Casilla de Camineros, places where time seems to have stood still. The people, however, have not, and have joined together to form an association, presided over by technical architect and local resident, Juan Manuel del Pozo Torres.
While politicians of different parties try to reach an agreement, the local people are still travelling 44 kilometres to collect drinking water from La Villa spring in Antequera. Others have it delivered in tankers.
Ana Infante Toribio’s eyes light up at the thought of running water. She has to find room in her home for dozens of five litre bottles of water for drinking and cooking that she collects from a public fountain.
“The scheme to take mains drinking water to the area dates back to the seventies when the first plans were drawn up. In the eighties negotiations continued. Then in the nineties there was the chance to get a grant due to a Drought Decree to create water points for livestock farmers. The association got all its paperwork in on time but the City Hall missed the deadline. Then we missed out on a great opportunity to bring water to the area”, recalls Juan Manuel del Pozo.
Useless well
Also in the nineties the municipal planning department dug a well and built a water tank with the necessary connection. But this was never used, mainly because when they built the Casasola reservoir the source of water to the well was cut off.
More good news was to come though with the plans drawn up by the Junta de Andalucía to build a mains pipe between Malaga and Almogía in 2003. The residents even agreed to foot the bill for the connections from this mains pipe to their homes. All they needed was an agreement between Emasa (the Malaga city water board) and the Town Hall of Almogía, an agreement that has been under negotiation for five years.
Then there is the added planning problem. The local residents were dismayed to see that in Malaga’s new urban development plan they failed even to appear officially as “diseminados”, a term used for groups of homes in rural areas. This meant that they were no longer entitled to water or other services. However their hopes rose again last August when the city went back to using the 1997 plan.
The association got together with a group of Architecture and Engineering students to carry out the preliminary study of what is known as a “Plan Especial del Diseminado”. Armed with ten plans and other documents they visited all the necessary authorities. “They all welcomed us and we have an excellent relationship with all of them, but between them they still haven’t been able to bring us water”, explains Del Pozo.
The problem is that despite the 1997 plan allowing the work, the authorities are reluctant to give planning permission for any construction in rural areas, quoting the Andalusian law, the LOUA, as one of the obstacles. It appears that these residents have fallen victim to the stricter regulations brought in to crack down on people building rural homes without licences. But Juan Manuel is quick to point out that this hasn’t happened in their case.
“We want to make it very clear that we are not clandestine developments. In the last ten years just three properties have been built and they all had their permits and licences in order”, says the association’s president.
In fact many of the properties have been around for a long, long time. “I’m 74 and my great grandfather lived here in the 19th century”, says Juan Ruiz Antúnez, who lives with his wife in Llano Persona. Juan regrets that he was not granted permission to build a house for his son on his land so that he could live next door.
Similarly 73-year-old Rafael Moya Fernández , who lives in Matagatos, has also been around all his life. “We were born here like the rabbits, and here we’ll die”, he said.
Lucky neighbours
There is one thing that Rafael can’t understand: “Those over there, aren’t they Andalusians just like us? So why are we discriminated against?”
By “those over there” he means his neighbours who live in rural areas just like them but over the municipal boundary in Almogía. They have been given planning permission to build bigger houses, their lanes are tarmacked and they have basic utilities like water, street lighting and drains.
Juan Manuel del Pozo is optimistic. There is still hope that the area could be included in the new PGOU as a “diseminado” and subsidies could also be awarded for the distribution of water.
Meanwhile city councillors admit the situation is “complex”.
